No ordinary solidarity — inside Chicago’s hunger strike for Gaza


This article No ordinary solidarity — inside Chicago’s hunger strike for Gaza
 was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

Ash Bohrer sat in a wheelchair outside of the Chicago Federal Plaza, where they had been arrested for refusing to leave Sen. Tammy Duckworth’s office hours earlier — and where six Jewish Voice for Peace-Chicago organizers had launched a hunger strike for Gaza 18 days prior. Reflecting on the highlights to that point, Bohrer, a JVP-Chicago organizer and Notre Dame peace studies professor, said it wasn’t the teach-ins, solidarity demonstrations or political wins that came to mind first, but a message they received from a mother in Gaza named Alaa. 

“When someone in Chicago chooses to face hunger willingly that is not ordinary solidarity,” she wrote. “It is a profound act of pure humanity.”

For Alaa, her three children and 2.1 million Gazans living in constant danger of Israeli bombs, starvation is the other grave threat. On March 2, Israel blocked all aid, including food and baby formula, from entering Gaza. In May, the World Health Organization stated that the entire population of Gaza faces prolonged food shortages and 500,000 people are battling catastrophic hunger.

“Hunger here is not a choice or a political stance,” Alaa’s message read. “Hunger here is a decision made against us.” She wanted the hunger strikers to know, “from the heart of this catastrophe, I say: We see you, we feel you, and your actions reach us even when the borders remain closed.”

After months without any aid entering the besieged Gaza Strip, the U.S.-led Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF, began distributing small amounts of aid in late May. But to the people of Gaza, GHF is a misnomer. 

According to a joint statement published last month by over 240 international human rights organizations, more than 500 Palestinians have been killed and almost 4,000 injured for trying to access aid at GHF sites. Israeli forces and armed groups routinely open fire on starving civilians seeking food. GHF massacres have been documented by firsthand Palestinian accounts and Israeli soldiers who admitted they were ordered to open fire on unarmed Gazans seeking aid. U.S. aid sites have been called “killing fields,” “death traps,” and “the concentration camps of our time.”

Out of these dire conditions, Palestinian organizations in the solidarity movement brought a direct ask to Jewish Voice for Peace: Center the forced starvation of Gaza in their organizing. This message was disseminated at the JVP National Members’ Meeting in May, where local JVP leaders — including those from Chicago — were directed to discuss specifics with their chapters. 

“In conversation with the chapter, we decided there is no better way to highlight what starvation is doing to the people of Gaza than to do a solidarity hunger strike,” Bohrer said. They saw the hunger strike as an intuitive way to refuse any pretense that Jewish life is more important than Palestinian life. The message was simple and effective: “While Gazans cannot eat, we will not eat.” This escalation had the dual purpose of centering the forced starvation in Gaza in public discourse and pressuring politicians into action. 

Avey Rips, another JVP-Chicago hunger striker and graduate student at Northwestern, explained that “part of why hunger strikes work is because people are confronted with both the cruelty of humanity, symbolically represented in the body of strikers, and their steadfastness toward the pursuit of justice.”

Since May, the student movement has adopted hunger strikes as a central tactic. Students at Yale, Stanford, Dartmouth, the University of Oregon, CUNY and dozens more launched concurrent strikes, demanding their universities divest from assets that support the Israeli occupation. They hoped that their hunger strikes would raise awareness of forced starvation in Gaza.

In response to the same crisis, but with a broader scope, JVP-Chicago launched its own indefinite hunger strike on June 16 during a press conference at Federal Plaza, visible from the offices of their elected officials. Over the next 18 days, they co-organized 23 events with 36 movement organizations. Fourteen solidarity strikes were launched across the country, and a network of 60 local volunteers stepped up to support the hunger strikers, while JVP-Chiacgo took the fight to their senator’s doorstep. 

The power of solidarity

On day five of the strike, Tzedek Chicago, a local anti-Zionist synagogue led by Rabbi Brant Rosen, hosted a “Shabbat in the streets” at the Federal Plaza. Over 50 community members gathered to sing, pray and call attention to the genocide in Gaza. Tzedek endorsed the strike on day one and encouraged congregants to attend events. 

“Shabbat was a great way to frame the strikers’ work from the prior week, making Olam Haba, or the ‘world to come,’ real through their solidarity,” Rosen said. 

It also underscored a distinct characteristic of the strike: It was led by Jews whose opposition to Zionism is rooted in their Jewishness. Bohrer, who grew up in a religious household, shared that their Holocaust education taught them “one of the most important things about being Jewish is refusing to stand by and do nothing while we watch injustice.”

On day 10, JVP highlighted the local lineage of hunger strikes in Chicago, inviting veteran organizers from the Dyett High School, General Iron and Little Village School hunger strikes to lead a teach-in. Lessons were shared from successful parent-led campaigns that pressured the city to reverse decisions to disinvest from schools in Black and low-income communities. This teach-in and much of the programming throughout the 18-day strike emphasized cross-movement connections. Other teach-ins covered Black-Palestinian solidarity, pinkwashing, Irish-Palestinian solidarity and militarized policing from Chicago to Palestine.

“It’s really exciting to see the ways we are able to collaborate with so many organizations who are seeing connections between Palestine and other issues,” Bohrer said. “Our power comes from our solidarity,” Rips added. Collaborating with 36 organizations from a diversity of political focuses increased engagement and allowed for consistently high turnout at events. 

On day 12, 14 JVP chapters around the country organized one-day solidarity fasts to uplift the demands from the Chicago strike. “I fasted to help increase and maintain public attention on the starvation of Palestinians in Gaza and support the social media campaign of the Chicago hunger strike,” said Ray Himmelman, organizer with Twin Cities JVP. 

The Chicago strikers also received an outpouring of international support and messages of solidarity from France, Ireland, Egypt and Palestine. They were even visited by Motaz Azaiza, a Palestinian journalist from Gaza who was on a speaking tour in Chicago.

Mounting political victories

As the widespread support generated by the strike mounted pressure on politicians,  JVP-Chicago achieved some tangible political victories. They secured meetings with federal legislators, including Reps. Mike Quigly, Robin Kelly and Bill Foster, to discuss the Block the Bombs Act — a bill currently in the House that, if passed, would prevent the Trump administration from delivering major U.S. weapons to Israel. Rep. Danny Davis agreed to co-sponsor the bill after meeting with hunger strikers, likely a result of the political pressure by JVP. Several elected officials also attended their events, including Rep. Delia Ramirez, State Sen. Gabriela Guzman and multiple city alders.

In addition to these legislative wins, 25 stories in local and national publications covered the hunger strike, and they raised nearly $15,000 for Middle East Children’s Alliance.

As the wins piled up, JVP attempted to leverage its momentum to secure a meeting with Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who sits on the Foreign Relations Committee and who Rips describes as having “supported Israel with a blank check.” (Sen. Duckworth has received over $780,000 from Pro-Israel PACs). For years, Duckworth refused to meet with Palestinians and their supporters, despite Chicago having the largest Palestinian population of any U.S. city. 

During the first week of the strike, JVP managed to meet with a staffer, who promised to let them know whether Duckworth herself would meet with them by July 1 (day 16 of the hunger strike).  

Steadfastness grounded in community and history

Meanwhile, the strikers’ health had started to deteriorate. They were battling nausea, fatigue, temperature dysregulation and walking a few steps had become a strenuous task. Doctors examined them daily and two of the six strikers ended their participation during the second week due to medical concerns.

But the hunger strikers remained steadfast in their commitment to each other and their political objectives. “As our bodies have gotten weaker, our spirit and resolve have gotten stronger,” Bohrer said. 

Behind the scenes, a network of 60 JVP and non-JVP volunteers emerged to provide around-the-clock care for the hunger strikers. This community care team filled over 2,000 cumulative hours of volunteer shifts, assisting with pivotal tasks such as monitoring vitals, driving strikers, setting up and breaking down events, press liaising and even impromptu jail support. 

“This strike could not have happened without our support team,” Rips said. “This has really shined a light on how movements need community. We’re family now. It’s not just us [the 6 strikers], it’s also the care team.”

The strikers’ steadfastness was grounded in both their local community’s support and the long history of hunger strikes that JVP studied before their launch. In addition to the local Chicago campaigns, they were inspired by the 2012 Palestinian prisoners’ strikes. An estimated 1,600-2,000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons went on hunger strike to demand the end of administrative detention — the illegal practice of holding prisoners indefinitely without charge or trial. The Palestinian prisoners’ strike catalyzed solidarity demonstrations in the West Bank and Gaza, a source of inspiration for the nationwide JVP solidarity fasts on day 10.

While JVP-Chicago replicated tactics from a number of strikes, Rips believes there were also some unique features. Rips breaks down hunger strikes into two categories: those led by incarcerated people (including the Palestinian strikes), and those with hyper-local stakes (such as the three Chicago campaigns or those focused on university investments).

“What we were doing is a variation on this method, because we’re targeting the entire U.S. government with maximalist demands,” Rips said. They understood President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were not going to change their minds and lift the siege on Gaza overnight, but there was an opportunity to pressure elected officials and re-center Gaza in public discourse.

A final escalation

As the deadline for a response from Sen. Duckworth’s office came and went, the strikers’ vitals were trending down and the community care team was running low on capacity. 

On July 3, day 18, it was time for one final escalation. 

Members from JVP-Chicago, including two hunger strikers in wheelchairs, approached Sen. Duckworth’s office to ask for a meeting in person. They attempted to enter but found the doors locked. According to Bohrer and Rips, the staff pretended that nobody was in the office (a claim since repeated), despite answering the intercom. After confirming with Duckworth’s other offices that the Chicago office was indeed open that day, they flooded the Chicago staff with calls saying they weren’t leaving without a meeting. 

“In response to that, they called the Federal Protective Service,” Bohrer said. “They handcuffed everybody who was at the office, including myself and one other hunger striker.” Eight members of JVP-Chicago were charged with failure to comply and disorderly conduct.

Hours after they were arrested and released, Bohrer said, “It’s very energy intensive to be arrested. What happens from here remains to be seen. We are feeling extra exhaustion and tiredness and pain in our bodies.” 

The next day, on July 4, JVP-Chicago announced that the hunger strike had ended. On advice from doctors, they decided that after Bohrer and another striker were arrested, they had reached the limits of what their bodies could endure without permanent damage. The hunger strikers are now in the process of regaining their strength.

Describing their recovery, Rips emphasized that the situation is worse in Gaza. “The people in Gaza don’t get to choose to end their starvation. They’re living in rubble. They are injured. They don’t have air conditioning. They have to walk miles for food and are shot in the head while waiting.”

The hunger strikers hope their action can inspire future strikes, and they carry many lessons forward. One of the biggest takeaways is the importance of community support.

“A hunger strike takes a village,” Bohrer said. “We think about the individual people who are forgoing food, but it takes a team.”

Another lesson is that to be effective, you can’t just starve at home — you have to bring your bodies and message to elected officials’ offices every single day and pressure them to act. 

JVP-Chicago is publishing a forthcoming pamphlet that will include medical research from dozens of professionals on sustaining hunger strikes, spreadsheets about how to organize volunteers, and a to-do list for resources and preparation.

“We put this issue in front of millions of eyes, so even if this is a drop in the bucket, it’s a bucket we are trying to collectively fill with justice,” Rips said. “And I’m honored to put a drop in it.”

If the JVP Chicago hunger strike is indeed just a drop in the bucket, it’s a drop that will have ripple effects for courageous acts to come.

This article No ordinary solidarity — inside Chicago’s hunger strike for Gaza
 was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

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Source: https://wagingnonviolence.org/2025/07/inside-jewish-voice-for-peace-chicago-hunger-strike-for-gaza/